Bittersweet
by L. Drayton
Summary: Just as Light begins to clock L's strange behavior, the detective himself is trying to hide his symptoms even more. The problem of raising the topic is quickly eliminated when things just get too much for L, and Light has to take control. ON HIATUS.


**_Well hello there! This is just a little idea I'm toying with. The success of this chapter will help me gauge where I should place this in my list of priorities, if on a list at all. Enjoy~  
-L._**

"Ryu... Ryuzaki, what are you doing?" Light murmured from the bed. He had been awoken by the sudden decrease in pressure from the other side of the bed where L was supposed to be currently located. He rubbed at his eyes and turned to squint at the pacing man. "It's late," he continued.

"I know," Ryuzaki responded unhelpfully. He walked quickly and was a little uncoordinated which Light was unused to. He tried to make light of the situation:

"Need the toilet or something?"

L's head snapped up and looked at his companion who was now fully awake in the bed next to him. His eyes bore into the soft hazel ones of Light's and when he nodded in response, the younger of the two wasn't sure why he felt scared.

"Well go then!"

"Light-kun doesn't understand... and I don't wish to explain it to him," the detective muttered, shifting the chain as he got back into the bed. Light jumped a little.

"You're not coming back in here! You'll wet the bed!"

"I won't."

"Just go to the toilet!" Light expressed his exasperation by giving a little 'open-arms' gesture. L grunted and slid out of the bed they had to share. He clamped the chain to the bed and left. As he padded to the bathroom, the brown-haired male settled himself beneath the covers once more and pondered on the strangeness of the situation. _Why had he looked at me like that? It was almost a look of disappointment... as though he was expecting me to work something out that I missed. _Did_ I miss something?_

Thinking hard on the events of the past day, Light tried to find the thing he'd missed. Combing frantically through his memories he found nothing. Annoyed, he resolved to get some sleep and think more on the matter in the morning. It was only half past midnight, after all. He'd only been asleep a couple of hours.

Just as Light's eyes were shutting, the toilet flushed and the detective came back into the room. He collapsed onto the bed in an ungracious manner and forgot to attach the chain to himself again, surprising the man next to him who was now only half-asleep.

"You forgot the chain," he mumbled sleepily. The detective didn't reply. "Ryuzaki?" Looking over he saw the detective fast asleep, chest rising and falling slowly as he breathed. Light had never seen him asleep before. He gave a tiny smile at how innocent he looked and snuggled back down for the third time that night, determined to sleep until noon after all of the interruptions.

* * *

When the sunlight piked through the slats in the blinds, Light sighed. He had been up for about three hours but hadn't been able to go anywhere or do anything due to the chain keeping him tied to the bed. L was asleep.

The more the young man thought about that statement, the weirder it sounded in his head. L was asleep. He was _still_ asleep. Light had begged and pleaded, but the longest he had ever slept for was two hours, and it was always whilst Light was sleeping. He was awake when he went to sleep and awake when he woke up. Today however, he had voluntarily slept for six hours. Was he sick or something?

Scrolling through the files on the Kira case, Light found it hard to focus. Was L really alright? He'd seemed pretty distressed earlier, maybe something was bothering him. Could Light help? Should he offer or stay out of the way? That had been how Light's morning had been and would continue to be for another hour before L woke, bleary eyed.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Light proclaimed loudly as he saw L's eyes open.

"Light-kun what...?"

"Enjoy your actually surprisingly healthy amount of sleep?"

"Light-kun is talking nonsensical gibberish and I would like him to cease it," L muttered as he stood out of the bed, stretching widely. Light chuckled and returned to the laptop.

"Whatever," he replied. L then proceeded to creep over to the bathroom, causing Light to raise an invisible eyebrow. Hadn't L used the facilities quite recently? Maybe he'd just had a lot of tea the day before. His thoughts then drifted away from L's toilet usage and onto L's possible caffeine addiction considering the amount of caffeine in tea. By the time L was done in the bathroom and getting changed, Light had concluded that L wasn't addicted to caffeine.

When the pair were both finished they trudged (in L's case) to the kitchen where they set about making tea and other breakfast worthy consumables.

"Today we aren't having any work. It's an experiment," the detective declared as he sipped on his sugar accompanied by tea. Light gave a shrug and continued reading the newspaper he had acquired from Watari that morning.

"Fine by me," he worded. L nodded and then smacked his lips loudly. He rose slumpily to make another cup and Light suddenly realised how much Ryuzaki drank. A lot. There was always a cup of tea beside him. Light voiced his opinion on the matter: "Why do you drink so much?"

"Excuse me? What did you say?" There was no malice in the words as the younger of the two knew, but he also knew that to others it would have sounded very rude and many would be offended. Deciding there was something of more importance to discuss, Light refrained from reprimanding the detective.

"I asked why you drink so much. Is your mouth dry or...?" He let the sentence hang. L thought on this.

"I always drink this amount," he responded, sipping the tea in his hand. "Is it unusual?"

"A little, I suppose. I certainly don't drink anywhere near that much."

"I had noticed this. Perhaps it means something."

"I doubt it. It's probably just another 'quirk' or yours, Ryuzaki."

"Maybe," L closed. The two sat in silence for a while before Ryuzaki downed the rest of his cup and went to leave to see to some unknown business, clamping Light to the table leg. Before he left however, Light called him back.

"I don't think the chain is really secure there. If I wanted to get out, I could."

"Maybe this is a test. There are cameras, after all. I don't think Light-kun will try to escape," he decided. Then L left to go and research into why he drank more than most people, unbeknownst to Light who sighed and continued reading his newspaper. Any ideas he'd had about L being unwell were pushed to the back of his mind as he slurped on his own coffee. L? Sick? Ridiculous.


End file.
